Rooted in Well-Being: Practitioner Sustainability as a Foundation for Peacebuilding Work

Dispute resolution practitioners dedicate themselves to creating conditions for others to heal, repair, and move forward. But sustainable peacebuilding and mediation require something more: the well-being of the people doing the work (yes, that's you!). Research on mediator burnout shows that compassion fatigue, emotional exhaustion, vicarious trauma, and depersonalization are real and measurable risks in this field, and that when practitioners aren't well, the quality and integrity of the work suffers with them.

This session makes the case that practitioner well-being is an ethical obligation to the people and communities we serve. When we are depleted, we tend to absorb others' emotions rather than holding space for them, avoid hard moments instead of staying present for them, and perpetuate outdated and inherited martyrdom narratives about what it means and what it takes to "do good."

Drawing on research in mediator burnout, emotional integrity, and sustainable practice, this session explores three interconnected questions through the lens of the actual people in the room: 

1) What is burning practitioners out and why? 

2) How do burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma impact the work and the people we serve? 

3) What does it look like to practice peacebuilding, mediation, and professional life from a place of wholeness rather than depletion?

Participants will leave with a reframing of what sustainable peacebuilding requires of practitioners, and concrete tools for protecting their well-being to deepen their work and impact.

All of our workshops are deeply interactive, and while we will share information and new frameworks, we are committed to harvesting the wisdom of the room and going where the room's energy takes us. Participants can expect large-group and small-group discussions, interactive technology, and a downloadable toolkit to supplement the session and return to again and again.

About Marissa Badgley, MSW

Marissa Badgley, MSW, is a globally recognized team culture transformation expert, workplace mediator, restorative justice practitioner, and facilitator with a dynamic background in organizational psychology, leadership development, education, conflict resolution, group dynamics, and social work. With over 20 years of experience working in and on behalf of the social impact space, Marissa is driven by her own experiences with burnout, dysfunctional leadership, and harmful organizational ecosystems. She is on a mission to ensure that what happened to her doesn't happen to others and is hyper-focused on disrupting the harmful paradigms we have embraced as leaders, changemakers, and professional human beings.

Marissa has been featured as a thought leader in publications such as Forbes, Nasdaq, Business Insider, ThriveGlobal, Medium, and Crunchbase, and on podcasts such as Do Business Better, Small Biz Gone Viral, Welcome to my World, and Unlimited. She has also been a regular speaker on leadership, management, and professional well-being at conferences throughout the United States. Marissa holds an MSW in organizational and leadership development from Washington University in St. Louis and a BA from Franklin & Marshall College.